I see the passion and everyone has good points and well written by and large, which I appreciate. And NM, that is an excellent article. That guy puts out a lot of great stuff. Selco, glad to see you active in a topic.
As JM touched on, a lot of vets do experience a bond that is hard to fathom unless you’ve been in those shoes. Kinda like the wife describing childbirth to the husband. The husband with all his compassion, empathy, love, etc. will not KNOW that experience, ever. But, some mother halfway around the world that may have very little in common with said wife otherwise, will have that experience of childbirth. And if the two were to ever meet, they would have that as a strong baseline at the very least. There’s lots of circumstances in life like that and I think most vets recognize it as such. Nobody wants to admit they were duped into anything especially in something like military service that can demand so much so often. And like so many issues, it’s really not that cut and dry anyway. Both military and civilians tend to take a myopic view of the way things should or shouldn’t be.
It seems to me all too often .mil is looked at with blinders on. As in the military is some kind of semi-autonomous entity that that operates in relative isolation from the rest of .gov. It is not and does not, in my opinion. I think it is a military industrial complex in the truest spirit of the phrase. There’s the commander in chief to the local civilian that cleans the offices on some base and so much in between that it would fill volumes. In there, somewhere, is the military certainly. I believe the MIC bigger, more intertwined, and convoluted today than it ever was when Ike brought it to the forefront. From what I’ve seen the positions of E-7 and above and O-5 and above, are far more politician than soldier, and the highest ranks are politicians, plain and simple.
If it ever comes to it, I think it will not be the military vs the people, it will be the MIC fighting for its’ survival, defending its’ existence however it sees fit. I don’t think the U.S. military, as a whole, would ever turn on its’ people. In fact, I don’t really believe most rank and file would want to or be able to. Not that some wouldn’t, I think some would. With that said, the MIC could do much more damage, much easier and much swifter behind a cloak of legitimacy that a pure military operation would/could hope to get away with so easily. I believe the MIC poses a far greater threat than .mil alone.
Step back, let the emotions wane and consider who really has your best interest at heart from a macro view. You may change your perspective. In this case, we have a still relatively transparent .mil or the MIC, of which large parts aren’t even as visible, let alone accessible to the public.
I believe a “reboot” is on it’s way or maybe it’s already started and this subject matter will be a major player.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 7 months ago by
DB.